Xbox One Will Support External Storage Soon

While it’s unlikely to happen within the next few months, space will eventually become an issue with these next-gen consoles. Not space in the entertainment center, mind you, but space on the hard drive.

See, as the scope of these next-gen experiences continues to grow so too will their file size. We have already seen games like Call of Duty: Ghosts and Killzone: Shadow Fall push the limits as far as game install sizes go, and that trend should continue throughout the life cycle of these consoles.

With that in mind we bring word that Microsoft will soon allow for external storage options on the Xbox One. Microsoft’s Larry Hyrb (better known as Major Nelson) confirmed the news in a post to Reddit, but would not say when exactly gamers might expect the feature, instead using the nebulous “soon.”

External game storage is coming soon…

For Xbox One owners, external storage is a major priority for the reasons already outlined. Sure, Microsoft has added better file management features through a recent Xbox One update, which allowed users to easily delete game installs, but there are some who’d rather keep everything on their hard drive. After all, the ability to readily switch between downloaded games is one of the big selling points of the next-gen experience, but how appealing is that for players who can only keep a handful of games on their hard drive?

It’s worth mentioning that the PS4 has had support for internal storage expansion (hard drive swapping) since launch, and doing so is apparently fairly easy. However, adding an external hard drive to the equation has yet to hit Sony’s console either. For the Xbox One, internal storage upgrades are reportedly not in the cards at all though, as the console’s hard drive is hard to get to. In other words, this upcoming external option seems to be only one for Xbox One owners.

Again, Major Nelson only confirmed that external storage is on Microsoft’s to-do list, but did not say when exactly the feature might hit the Xbox One. For that matter he didn’t reveal much beyond the fact that it is in the works. For example, we don’t even know if there will be any restrictions regarding the feature.

However, if Hyrb is correct it sounds like external storage support is coming sooner rather than later. We’ll keep you posted if and when Microsoft says more.

How high a priority is external Xbox One storage for you? Do you see yourself exceeding the 500 GB limit on the Xbox One?